Skip to main content

evening weather

The wind is blasting through Hitachinaka and rustling the trees outside my window. Meanwhile the sun is burning itself out on the Western horizon, sending streaks of gold and neon red across my floor just before it dies away. Some kids bike by and shout to each other, Japanese words I can't understand but the sound of carefree kids is universal. It's Friday. Tomorrow I'll be up at 6:40am to dress, eat, and walk to Sano Elementary School by 7:30, when they'll begin preparations for Sports Festival. It promises to be a long Saturday. For now, though, both windows in my apartment are open, the overcast sky is fading to purple and blue, and cool wind smelling of the earlier passing storm is wafting into my bedroom.

 It's the kind of evening that makes me want to fall asleep early, and after a week of teaching, it's no wonder I'm tired. The week was good, though. Not great, but not bad. Monday's school is full of students who are allergic to listening, but Tuesday through Friday I have classes of kids who sit up, listen, and repeat any nonsense I throw at them. They've all been hot, tired, and hungry this week from practicing for Sports Festival. All the schools have presentations and opening ceremonies full of acrobatics, flags, cheers, and songs, so the kids have been outside half the week standing in line, marching around, and shouting various things in unison. In addition, air conditioning is a limited resource, so open windows and blowing fans are the most the schools will do to combat the warmth and rising humidity of midday. My kids have been looking at me with tired eyes and heat-pinked faces, wondering why I'm making them recite the 12 months in English. Again.

 They're troopers, my kids.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

paris, part one

I left for Paris on December 21st from Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan, Taiwan, which is a forty minute train-ride south-west of Xinzhuang. You already know about Taoyuan from the previous post, so I won't go into it. I left on time, though, and had an easy flight to Shanghai. Once in Shanghai, I quickly learned that I could not access the internet because I didn't have an "international phone" through which to receive the password. (Coming back from Paris, I found out that all I had to do was ask about it at the front desk.) My layover was short, though, so it wasn't too big of a hassle, and I did manage to change some TWD into RMB, the Chinese currency, and buy a snack. I needn't have worried about food, though, because I was well-fed on China Eastern's flight. Oh, China Eastern. I got to know them very well in that week, seeing as I had about three separate flights with them. The planes are very nice, and I was elated to find that I had a m...
2 comments
Read more

hostel territory

Just arrived at Indy Hostel in Indianapolis, IN . It's stop #1 on a three-day road trip to Chicago to get my Visitor's Visa from the Taipei Representative Office.  When preparing to get my visa, I saw that there was no way I could mail the forms in and receive the visa in time. Therefore, I knew I'd have to drive or fly to Chicago. (Imagine my huge, enormous, intense disappointment about this development, which I was totally not psyched about at all.) In planning this trip, I saw that going through Indy instead of Toledo would take about the same amount of time, so I added another day and a detour to my itinerary. Here's how it lays out: Day 1, Saturday June 23 Drive to Indianapolis. (Check!) Day 2, Sunday June 24 Play "tourist" in Indianapolis. Drive to Chicago, arrive that evening. Day 3, Monday June 25 Submit visa application at Taipei Representative Office that morning. Play "tourist" the rest of the day. Day 4, Tue...
Post a Comment
Read more

it's a quiet village

For the second morning in a row, I went for a jog along the side streets of my neighborhood. The first morning, I went in a straight line, following the road as far as it went. When I arrived at a park, and a sharp turn, I turned around and jogged back. This morning, I turned left, and at the next intersection, right again, now following a new road as far as I felt I was willing to jog. I passed more houses, more little plots of land growing rice and vegetables, and what I think might have been a Shinto shrine on a wide expanse of cleared land. Both times, although I passed people and the occasional car, I was mostly on my own along the roads. Last night I remember lying in the dark before I fell asleep and thinking, "It's so quiet." No distant din of traffic, no undertone buzz of electricity, no nearby growl of a scooter engine, no occasional shout or yell from somewhere in the streets. Last night, I fell asleep to the silence of suburbia. It's a marked differ...
Post a Comment
Read more